Ere, pouncing like a ravenous bird of prey, In his known haunts of joy where'er he might, A more congenial object. But, as time And stilled his tremulous lip. Thus they were calmed In walks whose boundary is the lost One's grave, CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHILD THREE YEARS OLD. 245 For such, by pitying Angels and by Spirits Which, soothed and sweetened by the grace of Heaven "That celestial light, &c." Compare the Ode on Immortality (p. 48). Maternal Grief was classed amongst the "Poems founded on the Affections."—ED. 1811. In the spring of 1811 Wordsworth left Allan Bank, to reside for two years in the Rectory, Grasmere. A small fragment on his daughter Catherine, the Epistle to Sir George Beaumont, from the south-west coast of Cumberland, and four Sonnets (mainly suggested by the events of the year in Spain) comprise all the poems belonging to 1811.-ED. LOVING she is, and tractable, though wild; And, as a faggot sparkles on the hearth, Not less if unattended and alone Than when both young and old sit gathered round Even so this happy Creature of herself Is all-sufficient; solitude to her Is blithe society, who fills the air With gladness and involuntary songs. Light are her sallies as the tripping fawn's Forth-startled from the fern where she lay couched ; Unthought-of, unexpected, as the stir Of the soft breeze ruffling the meadow-flowers, Or from before it chasing wantonly Upon the bosom of a placid lake. Classed amongst the "Poems referring to the period of Childhood." ----ED. THEY seek, are sought; to daily battle led, Shrink not, though far outnumbered by their Foes, Viriatus, for eight or fourteen years leader of the Lusitanians in the war with the Romans in the middle of the second century B.C. He defeated many of the Roman generals, including Pompey. Some of the historians say that he was originally a shepherd, and then a robber or guerilla chieftain. (See Livy, Books 52 and 54.)—ED. THE POWER OF ARMIES IS A VISIBLE THING. 247 And Mina, nourished in the studious shade,* With that great Leader† vies, who, sick of strife And bloodshed, longed in quiet to be laid In some green island of the western main. THE power of Armies is a visible thing, That power, that spirit, whether on the wing ... "Whilst the chief force of the French was occupied in Portugal and Andalusia, and there remained in the interior of Spain only a few weak corps, the Guerilla system took deep root, and in the course of 1811 attained its greatest perfection. Left to itself the boldest and most enterprising of its members rose to command, and the mode of warfare best adapted to their force and habits was pursued. Each province boasted of a hero, in command of a formidable band-Old Castile, Don Julian Sanches; Arragon, Longa; Navarre, Esprez y Mina, with innumerable others, whose deeds spread a lustre over every part of the kingdom. . . . Mina and Longa headed armies of 6 or 8000 men with distinguished ability, and displayed manœuvres oftentimes for months together, in baffling the pursuit of more numerous bodies of French, which would reflect credit on the most celebrated commanders." (See Account of the War in Spain and Portugal, and in the south of France, from 1808 to 1814 inclusive, by Lieut.-Colonel John T. Jones. London, 1818.) -ED. + Sertorius. See note to The Prelude, Book I., Vol. III. p. 134.-ED. Like the strong wind, or sleeping like the wind HERE pause the poet claims at least this praise, Of his pure song, which did not shrink from hope On prosperous tyrants with a dazzled eye; Forget thy weakness, upon which is built, EPISTLE TO SIR GEORGE HOWLAND BEAUMONT, BART. FROM THE SOUTH-WEST COAST OF CUMBERLAND. [This poem opened, when first written, with a paragraph that has been transferred as an introduction to the first series of my Scotch Memorials. The journey, of which the first part is here described, was from Grasmere to Bootle on the south-west coast of Cumberland, the whole among mountain roads through a beautiful country; and we |